2023 3123RL Legacy AC Airflow - serious issue

[Bourbon County]

I also thank you Clark & Peggy for the information. This actually makes a lot of sense. I've been a doubter of the "Blade system" since I've first seen it. I wonder if they have modified the duct system to make the blades work better? If you look closely at the blade vent, there's a narrow curved piece of plastic that extends into the duct. It's meant to act as a scoop and channel air down through the diffuser. If you rotate the concave side into the airflow direction, it theoretically should work. If the convex side is turned into airflow direction, it would act like a deflector and direct the airflow around that vent and greatly reduce amount of air going down through the vent. This sounds good in theory, but when using both ACs as opposed to just one trying to condition the entire coach, the airflow direction will change on one end depending on which unit you're using. I'm not a fan of the 360 degree spread either. It seems there is always one pretty close to a return and the percentage of discharge air that's going toward the return can set up an air short circuit; meaning it is just pulled back into the return and doesn't do much to cool the coach.

As far as the zoning concept, I believe adding or at least offering an option for a front heat pump model would be a smart move. Dometic and Coleman both offer a low profile heat pump unit; looks like it would add $400-600 to the price.

[allenclme]

Originally Posted by Ozzie66

Clark & Peggy, thank you very much for that information. Now we "know the rest of the story."

There's another piece to the story. In addition to the ducts now being segmented and no heat pump option in the front unit, you can't only run the heat pump in the main area. With the Colemans, the default, and this can't be changed, is to fire the propane heater as well if there is more than a 5 degree differential between the temp in the unit and the selected temp. I thought I had a problem with the heater cause I selected Heat (Elec) and it turned on the gas as well as the heat pump. The Dometic in my old 3820 FK didn't work that way.

On the new Blade, I had to play with them to get the right orientation to get max airflow out of the duct system.

[Bourbon County]

Originally Posted by allenclme

There's another piece to the story. In addition to the ducts now being segmented and no heat pump option in the front unit, you can't only run the heat pump in the main area. With the Colemans, the default, and this can't be changed, is to fire the propane heater as well if there is more than a 5 degree differential between the temp in the unit and the selected temp. I thought I had a problem with the heater cause I selected Heat (Elec) and it turned on the gas as well as the heat pump. The Dometic in my old 3820 FK didn't work that way.

On the new Blade, I had to play with them to get the right orientation to get max airflow out of the duct system.

I see the Coleman algorithm as a really good thing. It might take a heat pump a couple of days to make up a 5 degree differential even with outdoor temps in the 40s. I think it's safe to say that most of us campers are looking for instant gratification; we want to set up our rigs in temperature extremes in either direction and expect instant comfort. Heat pumps are efficient in maintaining temps and struggle to make up even a 2 degree differential. I actually do the same thing manually when setting up in cooler weather with my Dometics.

An even better idea would be to install an outdoor thermostat and not even give the option for the heat pump if temps are <40 and go ahead and fire the furnace in either heat mode. A further improvement would be go ahead and equip the heat pumps with the resistance heat strips and turn them on in conjunction with the gas furnace until set point is reached, then switch over to compressor. In other words, stage them like most residential heat pumps are. I believe most manufacturers offer them for at least some of their models. They are limited to about 1.5KW so they can operate on a 20 amp circuit. Every little bit helps.